ISTANBUL – Two Turkish vessels equipped with deep-diving drones reached a passenger ferry that capsized off Cyprus on Sunday, officials said yesterday, continuing efforts to find 20 people still missing from the accident. At least eight people died when a packed ferry carrying 267 people sank shortly after leaving Kyrenia port on the northern shore... The post Rescue ships reach sunken ferry off Cyprus appeared first on New Era .
ISTANBUL – Two Turkish vessels equipped with deep-diving drones reached a passenger ferry that capsized off Cyprus on Sunday, officials said yesterday, continuing efforts to find 20 people still missing from the accident.
At least eight people died when a packed ferry carrying 267 people sank shortly after leaving Kyrenia port on the northern shore of the divided island.
All of them were Turkish, according to officials from the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) an entity recognised only by Ankara.
Eighteen of the missing are Turkish while the last two are from northern Cyprus.
“They reached the (sunken) vessel,” Tufan Erhurman, president of the breakaway republic, said yesterday.
“Survey and search operations are continuing on a 24-hour basis and will continue without interruption,” he added, confirming that a second specialist vessel, the Alemdar, had joined the underwater search operation earlier on Wednesday.
Northern Cyprus prime minister Unal Ustel said all of the missing were believed to be on the FiloJet ferry, which is lying at a depth of 550 metres (1,700 feet).
“Search operations continue for the 20 missing individuals who we believe are on the ship,” he told reporters at Kyrenia port, known in Turkish as Girne, saying he hoped they would have clearer information by the evening.
His words came as two more of the dead were reportedly buried in the Turkish port city of Mersin as northern Cyprus observed a third day of national mourning.
From IrisJet to FiloJet
Police detained the ferry’s captain and 15 others, nine of whom appeared in court in Kyrenia on Monday charged with negligent homicide, with another seven people also facing court proceedings.
In court, the captain said the front of the vessel had been smashed open by the force of the waves, Turkey’s Anadolu news agency said.
The FiloJet is a French-made catamaran that was first registered in 2001 under the name IrisJet.
According to International Maritime Organization (IMO) data seen by AFP, the IrisJet sailed under a Spanish flag between 2011 and 2017.
But data from the Equasis global merchant shipping database seen by AFP shows the IrisJet flying a Spanish flag up to 2011 after which there is a six-year gap until 2017 when it re-emerges under a Greek flag.
Since 2024, it has flown a Cyprus flag and operated under the name FiloJet.
Cyprus has been split since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied the northern third of the island in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup seeking unification with Greece.
Today the island comprises the breakaway republic, which declared independence in 1983 but is only recognised by Turkey, and the EU member Republic of Cyprus in the south.
The TRNC is served by regular air and sea links to Turkey.
– Nampa/AFP
The post Rescue ships reach sunken ferry off Cyprus appeared first on New Era.
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